The present invention relates to a connector structure for engaging a male connector housing and a female connector housing with each other. More particularly, it relates to a connector structure for a pair of male and female connector housings, either one of which is provided with a rotatable manipulating lever having cam grooves, while the other is provided with cam pins for engagement with the cam grooves, respectively, whereby both of the male and female connector housings can be engaged with each other by rotating the manipulating lever.
In ordinary arts, the female connector housing is provided, on each side thereof, with a manipulating lever which is rotatable about a bearing pin and which has two cam grooves formed thereon. While, the male connector housing is provided, on each side thereof, with two pins for respective engagement with the cam grooves.
In engagement, the manipulating lever is rotated on condition that one of the above cam pins is inserted into one of the cam grooves, whereby long male terminals on the side of the female connector housing are engaged with female terminals on the side of the male connector housing. Thereafter, the manipulating lever is further rotated while the other of the cam pins is inserted into the other of the cam grooves, whereby short male terminals on the side of the female connector housing are engaged with corresponding female terminals on the side of the male connector housing. In this way, the mutual engagement of the male and female connector housings can be accomplished.
In the above-mentioned connector structure, however, operative fitting force between both connector housings, which is produced owing to the respective engagement of the cam grooves with the cam pins, is not applied over the whole lengths of the connector housings uniformly. Therefore, when rotating the manipulating lever, both connector housings are inclined to each other thereby to differentiate respective contact conditions between the male terminals and the female terminals in the longitudinal direction of the connector housings. Consequently, such an inclined engagement between the male connector housing and the female connector housing causes the terminals to be deformed or damaged disadvantageously in reliability. Similarly, in case of disengaging both connector housings from each other, a problem of deformation of the terminals is also caused due to the inclination of the connector housings.